Nine Women from Derry Make a Stand Against Raytheon Weapons and its Tools of Occupation
'We call for a criminal investigation
into the activities of the Raytheon
company in Ireland, Britain
and elsewhere with a view to the
prosecution of Raytheon executives
for complicity in war crimes.'

Statement issued by the nine womenas they entered the Raytheon premises:

From the Derry Anti War Coalition:
From Nine Women Who Have Chained Themselves Inside The Raytheon Building At Springtown Today (January 12Th) At 2.30pm

We have taken this action in an effort to prevent or delay war crimes being committed by the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza with the use of Raytheon weapons and to try to force a criminal investigation into the activities of the Raytheon company in Derry and elsewhere which, we believe, amount to complicity in war crimes.

Like millions of others, we have watched television pictures of innocent people being slaughtered since the Israeli assault on Gaza began on December 27th, and have wanted it to stop. But nobody with the power to make it stop seems willing to intervene to do so.

Lawyers and international human rights organisations have declared that the Israeli bombing and shelling of Gaza involves war crimes. The bombing of a UN-sponsored school on January 6th, killing at least 40 civilians, including children, has merely been the worst of these war crimes.

Raytheon is one of Israel’s main suppliers of the weapons being used in the attacks on Gaza. The company is either aware or doesn’t care that its weapons are being used to commit war crimes.

Shannonwatch.org, a website set up in December 2008 to document US military traffic and rendition flights through Shannon Airport has become the victim of organised international attacks. The attacks which started on January 8th are being repeated, and efforts to keep the website live are currently proving difficult. The website managers are determined that they will not be silenced however, and will continue in one form or another to publish information on military and suspect CIA flights through Shannon.

The Remembrance season is approaching. We will be called upon yet again to show maturity, to support reconciliation, to advance peace --- by participating in ceremonies which celebrate aggression, violence and war crimes!.

Mayo "Peace" Memorial

Four years ago a participant in one of the greatest war crimes in history was honoured in Mayo by a minister of the Irish government. Sergeant Major Cornelius Coughlan (Victoria Cross) of the Gordon Highlanders was praised by Defence Minister Michael Smith for his role in putting down the so-called Indian Mutiny of 1857, which Indians call their First War of Independence. Minister Smith praised Coughlan, along with sixty other brave Irishmen, as he put it, who were awarded the Victoria Cross during the military campaign that followed the Indian Mutiny.

Jim Keys, a member of the Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign (FEIC), was arrested on Friday after their monthly peace vigil outside Raytheon’s Derry software facility. His crime? He touched up a three year old spray drawing of The Black Shamrock on the public pavement outside Raytheon! The charge? Criminal Damage?

On 24 May 2017, two peace activists Dave Donnellan and Colm Roddy were sent for jury trial because the District Court judge finally refused to accept jurisdiction. The judge said the alleged criminal damage newly set at €3,500 was so large as to make it a serious charge.

Celebrating 13 years! Israeli Apartheid Week is an annual international series of events (including rallies, lectures, performances, films, multimedia displays and protest actions) held in cities and campuses across the globe.

Each year, Israeli Apartheid Week takes place across more than 150 universities and cities. It aims to raise awareness about Israel’s ongoing settler-colonial project and apartheid policies over the Palestinian people. IAW aims to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies towards the Palestinians and to build support for the growing campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Please join us in making the the 13th Israeli Apartheid Week one of the biggest yet.

Both men were arrested at Shannon Airport on May 25th, after entering the airfield, painting anti war markings & slogans on the runway, and then making their way over to a USAF C21 jet, (a 2nd military aircraft, an unmarked special forces C32B had already taken off before the presence of the men was detected by the Army sentries). The men were inside the perimeter walking around with a very large tricolour flag for 40 minutes before they were spotted by the Irish Army, approaching the US Airforce Jet.
They were held for over 24 hours, then brought to Gort where the Judge granted a state application for their bail conditions to ban them from entering County Clare other than for court related matters.
Yesterday they were in Ennis District Court, where they applied for disclosure (copies of statements and other evidence) and a variation on their bail conditions.

100 years ago, if a Dublin Castle tout had entered the Connolly Books building on Essex Street, Temple Bar, he would have been quids in. Sitting hugger mugger around a huge table in the centre of the room are more than 20 of the most subversive characters in Ireland, spouting socialist verse and preaching revolution and rebellion. They include communists, trotskyists, anarchists, republicans, trade unionists, anti-austerity activists, pacifists, militant feminists, internationalists, environmentalists, ex political prisoners, independent TDs, writers, poets, singers, artists, and actors. They have banded together in one bold adventure: to read, over a series of lunchtimes, the entire, epic, 24-hour Non Stop Connolly Show.

In Dublin’s Temple Bar, within gunshot of the General Post Office, a diverse band of Irish citizen actors are planning to strike a blow against war and imperialism and for Irish freedom. This is not a costumed re-enactment of the 1916 Easter Rising but an act of contemporary revolutionary theatre, where the audience for the epic 1970s play the Non Stop Connolly Show, by Margaretta D’Arcy and John Arden, become the cast. Each lunchtime between 27 April and 12 May, volunteers muster at Connolly Books to take reading parts in the play which covers the life, struggles and death of James Connolly. Not only has the fourth wall been broken down, but the spirit of text has spurred solidarity action by the players in support of Maura Harrington, jailed in Mountjoy on Friday for her opposition to Shell’s rape of the the West of Ireland countryside.

100 years after reducing downtown Dublin to rubble the British Navy returned during last week's
Easter 1916 commemorations. Accompanied by U.S. warships, they docked in Dublin as part of the NATO
fleet presently waging wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

This is a repost from Thierry Meyssan site and it discusses how the US military-intelligence industrial complex has co-opted the far Left, largely unrealized to themselves in the fight for US imperialism. The story of Kobane and Rojava got a surprising amount of coverage in the mainstream and that in itself is often a red flag because they don't give publicity for nothing unless there is a propaganda reason for it. While maybe a surprise to some, the US via it's pawns like Saudi Arabia and up to recently Turkey, were and are the main backers of ISIS in all it's forms, from support, logistics, weapons, oil-purchase, it is all part of a greater goal to destroy Syria, and use the Kurds to carve out their own state and in the process to give the US a bridgehead to attack Iran, break up Iraq, and permanently cripple Syria. The US will also ensure that if the Kurds manage to form their own state, they will setup it up to Balkanize it and leave it in a permanent state of war so they can play the old divide and conquer game. Over the previous decades the US has previously backed and then dropped the support for the Kurds many time and betrayed them. So while the Kurds may well deserve their own state, these things do not occur in a vaccum.

When the Russians were invited by Syria to support it in crushing ISIS in 2014 and so far they have gone along way and block the US's plan A for Syria, they came up with plan B to use the Kurds to achieve the goal. There is no doubt that there was and is a pre-existing left leaning movement within the Kurds and even with Anarchist tendencies or elements to it but it just seemed all too good to be true and the immense resources and budgets of US imperalism and it's NATO allies, has the means to control the show as outlined in Meyssan's article

Thankfully, before it's too late, I realized the truth; that is, anything which is organized by the Malaysia's Opposition ([especially by racist and fascist anti-Indigenous/anti-Muslim party of DAP (Democratic Action Party – ('democratic', my foot) - suspected to receive much hidden donation from ISrael, to the total of US 300 million and training from Mossad, through Singapore-based account] including under the guise of the so-called Human Rights March .

Shannonwatch have recorded an unusual number of US military aircraft at and overflying Shannon Airport since June 4th. This time period coincides with the preparations for NATO Anaconda-2016 military exercises in Poland which are being conducted from June 7th to 17th. (See list below)

The 10-day military exercise [1], involves 31,000 troops and thousands of vehicles from 24 countries. The Guardian [2] described it as follows "The largest war game in eastern Europe since the end of the cold war has started in Poland, as Nato and partner countries seek to mount a display of strength as a response to concerns about Russia's assertiveness and actions". The UK Independent [3] said it was one of the biggest exercises on NATO's eastern flank since the end of the Cold War, and was a move likely to put further strain on the already-tense relations between the Kremlin and the West

Shannonwatch strongly condemns the facilitation of a meeting between US Vice President Mike Pence and US troops at Shannon Airport on Saturday last. The use of the airport by foreign troops on their way to a war zone is in breach of Irish neutrality, and the decision to hold a public display of support for a foreign leader promoting war on Irish soil is dangerous and unwelcome

Richard Boyd Barrett TD, has condemned the government with the support of Fianna Fail for tabling a Dail motion this Thursday for Ireland to join the EU PESCO agreement on advanced military and defence cooperation.

The Fine Gael / Independents government is to propose to the Dail this coming week that Ireland join the EU's Permanent Structured Cooperation on security and defence (PESCO). This will mean a new EU Defence budget starting at over €1.5 billion a year (up from €590 million). Each participating EU state, including Ireland, will be required to reach an average of 2% of its GDP to ensure that the EU becomes a global military power.

Recent discussions about the safety or otherwise of having the US military flying in and out of Shannon Airport gave us reason to recall an incident in March 2008 in which a Murray Air aircraft was involved in an emergency landing at Shannon. This was after it was seen flying over Askeaton, which is across the River Shannon estuary from the airport, with flames coming from one of its engines. Residents of the County Limerick town described their windows rattling and houses shaking as the cargo plane flew low over a housing estate in the town.